Laborie, Saint Lucia: A Caribbean fishing village navigating the turbulent waves of a changing climate

This case study examines the impact of climate change on the fishing village of Laborie, Saint Lucia, highlighting how rising sea levels, ocean warming, and extreme weather events threaten the local blue economy and the livelihoods of fisherfolk.

• Climate change is directly threatening the livelihoods of fisherfolk in Laborie through depleted fish catches and the need to travel further distances to maintain viability. Some fishers now travel up to 60 nautical miles to find fish, which significantly increases fuel costs.
• Fisherfolk have adopted adaptation strategies such as using fish aggregating devices (FADs) to maintain catches with less effort, but these devices are frequently damaged or destroyed by increasingly intense hurricanes.
• Extreme weather events have caused severe economic damage to Saint Lucia and the Laborie community. Hurricane Tomas in October 2010 resulted in a loss of approximately 43% of the island's GDP and destroyed local equipment and locker rooms. A December 2013 Christmas Eve trough caused a further GDP loss of approximately 8.3%.
• Rising sea levels have caused significant beach erosion in Laborie Bay over the last decade, threatening coastal tourism and the accessibility of shore-based storage facilities used by fisherfolk.
• Local recovery efforts are supported by the Laborie Fishers & Consumers Co-operative through a distress fund facility. However, a lack of insurance coverage for small vessels beyond their loan repayment period leaves many fishers unable to recover from boat damage without external aid.

APA

Henry, J. (2023). Laborie, Saint Lucia: A Caribbean fishing village navigating the turbulent waves of a changing climate. Global Resilience Partnership. https://www.globalresiliencepartnership.org/laborie-saint-lucia-a-caribbean-fishing-village-navigating-the-turbulent-waves-of-a-changing-climate/

Chicago

Henry, Jevanic. Laborie, Saint Lucia: A Caribbean fishing village navigating the turbulent waves of a changing climate. Global Resilience Partnership, 2023. https://www.globalresiliencepartnership.org/laborie-saint-lucia-a-caribbean-fishing-village-navigating-the-turbulent-waves-of-a-changing-climate/.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Henry |first1=Jevanic |title=Laborie, Saint Lucia: A Caribbean fishing village navigating the turbulent waves of a changing climate |publisher=Global Resilience Partnership |date=25 July 2023 |url=https://www.globalresiliencepartnership.org/laborie-saint-lucia-a-caribbean-fishing-village-navigating-the-turbulent-waves-of-a-changing-climate/ |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{henry2023laborie, author = {Henry, Jevanic}, title = {{Laborie, Saint Lucia: A Caribbean fishing village navigating the turbulent waves of a changing climate}}, institution = {Global Resilience Partnership}, year = {2023}, month = jul, url = {https://www.globalresiliencepartnership.org/laborie-saint-lucia-a-caribbean-fishing-village-navigating-the-turbulent-waves-of-a-changing-climate/}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }